Readers' comments

I suspect that the election of the next Pope will be a matter of Vatican politics. The cardinals anxious for the post will have their quiet campaigns before and inside the chapel. Just like most politicians, they will place their ambition for power and position of the papacy ahead what is good for the church as a whole - a younger, active pope. Why would they be any different from the politicians around the world and especially in the US, where power over party over country rules. They have shown that tendency in the past. Last elected an older man who would not last too long and who might be easier to control.

Pope Pontian II resigned in the third century, on the even of going into a Roman prison, so that the Empire could not create ambiguity through torture, forced confessions, hiding news of his death, and so on.

Being very respectful of the institution and the man, I have a hunch that his abdication is not really abdication. The butler incidence has something to do with this climax.

Secrecy sometimes makes institution, men or nation infected till its core. Allowing "Sunlight" is the best disinfectant.

Hoping that the Papaldom as well as people and the Catholics will allow and accept the "mortal" institution not in an immortal way. Appreciating one's follies sans any excuses is the best way in which one can come for its final burial.

And interestingly that burial ground becomes fertile for newer flowers to blossom. "Flowers" of redemption and salvation...

People tend to misrepresent Celestine V. There were very clear reasons why he failed and none of them had to do with supposed other-worldliness. Simply put, he lacked a powerbase.
1)He was a compromise candidate, not a candidate of any faction of cardinals nor of any powerful secular ruler. 2)He had not risen through the ranks of the Church slowly through the decades, building an own power base & recruiting allies and creating a web of connections. 3)He was a rare kind of pope as he was not an aristocrat, so he lacked a powerful family that could have helped him to have a some kind of power base and connections through it and its standing.
Simply, Celestine V was all alone.